Startup funding increases 31% in Egypt during 2020

Egypt held the second-biggest share of venture capital investment in MENA last year, falling behind the UAE, which accounted for a whopping 56 percent of the total funding amount last year, according to Magnitt’s MENA Venture Investment Report.

Egypt’s VC funding inflows jumped 31 percent y-o-y in 2020, helping it to increase its share of regional funding by two percentage points to 17 percent.

The uptick was driven by the investments in the first half of the year, with investments slowing by 58 percent in the second half due to the economic impact of COVID-19.

Saudi Arabia came in third with 15 percent of regional VC funding, up from 11 percent in 2019.

Egypt accounted for almost a quarter (24 percent) of the region’s VC transactions, coming just short of the UAE’s 26 percent and ahead of third-placed Saudi Arabia at 18 percent.

Across MENA: Funding was up by 13 percent y-o-y, though total transaction count decreased by 13 percent to 496. The food and beverage industry saw a tripling of funding to $ 122 million, while health funding also tripled to $ 72 million, and e-commerce funding increased 24 percent to $162 million.

Our math says nearly 50 percent more transactions were closed in Egypt last year and that the average transaction was worth about 2x in 2020 was it was the year before.